Art Institute of Chicago

The Crucifixion

Lucas Cranach the Elder (German, 1472–1553)LinkedCulture matchlcp-a38e74af5bec

Date: 1538
Medium: Oil on panel
Culture: Germany
Department: Painting and Sculpture of Europe
Institution: Art Institute of Chicago
Object ID: 59856

From the Art Institute of Chicago record

In this crowded scene, traditional vignettes from the Crucifixion story surround the central figure of Jesus Christ on the cross. Jesus’s mother, the Virgin Mary, swoons amid a group of believers in the lower left corner. On the other side of the cross are Christ’s condemners and the cynics who rejected him, among them the soldiers who cast dice to divide up his clothing. Cranach was a good friend of the Protestant reformer Martin Luther, and though the Crucifixion was a subject more strongly associated with Catholics, Cranach included details that reinforce the Protestant emphasis on the power of faith and individual responsibility—for instance, the figure of the young boy learning from an older man at the foot of the central cross.

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Provenance & credit

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Credit line: Charles H. and Mary F. S. Worcester Collection
Provenance: Sir Fairfax Cartright (d. 1928), Aynho Park, Banbury [according to letter from Robert Langton Douglas to Charles Worces-ter, Nov. 25, 1928, in curatorial file]. Julius Böhler, Munich, 1928 [according to receipt and other records in the registrar’s office.]; sold to Charles H. Worcester, Chicago, Sept. 1928; on loan to the AIC from 1928; given to the AIC, 1947.